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Why Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) Stock Is Down Today

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Huntington Bancshares Inc. (HBAN - Get Report) are down -2.26% to $9.10 on Thursday morning following a ratings downgrade to "outperform" from "strong buy" at Raymond James Financial (RJF - Get Report).

The firm said it changed the regional bank holding company's rating due to a lack of near term catalysts.

Raymond James also lowered its price target for the company to $10.50 from $12.

"We rate HUNTINGTON BANCSHARES (HBAN) a BUY. This is driven by a number of strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, expanding profit margins and attractive valuation levels. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

Compared to its closing price of one year ago, HBAN's share price has jumped by 26.44%, exceeding the performance of the broader market during that same time frame. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, HBAN should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year.

The gross profit margin for HUNTINGTON BANCSHARES is currently very high, coming in at 91.14%. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year. Along with this, the net profit margin of 22.02% significantly outperformed against the industry average.

Regardless of the drop in revenue, the company managed to outperform against the industry average of 12.1%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 7.8%. The declining revenue appears to have seeped down to the company's bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.

The company's current return on equity has slightly decreased from the same quarter one year prior. This implies a minor weakness in the organization. Compared to other companies in the Commercial Banks industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, HUNTINGTON BANCSHARES has outperformed in comparison with the industry average, but has underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500.